I Don't Believe in You
by highh-violett
Summary: 1st Chapter is an intro to post-Megabyte Bob and the struggles of being a guardian. Eventual Series concluding with B&D reuniting. Please read and review, also if you would like to contribute, tell me please.
1. Chapter 1

I Don't Believe in You.

The guardian could detect that something wasn't entirely formatted. He paced heavily back and forth with this arms folded tightly across his chest. It's been five cycles.

Things have been busy, no doubt about it, but that doesn't mean that he can continually be kept in cyberspace with all that is still going on at the Principal Office. Ever since Megabyte returned and had successfully turned majority of Mainframe's citizens into binome 'zombies' he had has his own hands full battling the virus…again.

He was frustrated.

"Again… again… again…" He turned the word over and over in his mind until it began to act like viral stain on his thoughts. Considering that the virus himself had first introduced him to his home, Mainframe, the guardian only had so many happy memories to recall. Most of which were now also plagued because of his love now also lost.

"But, now…" he allowed himself to exhale a sigh, "…itt was actually over."

All the fighting and the hell that he had been through here.

All over.

"I had promised to defend this system, and now that Megabyte has finally been nullified, I find myself wondering if staying in Mainframe is such a good idea."

He spoke softly to the only thing in his run-time that he felt he had left: his trusty hover-car. As he allowed his blue skin to touch the shiny paint, the guardian realized that not even his car was reliable for happiness. It was always breaking down, leaving him drained from time to time in run the run down sectors of Mainframe like it always did. Not that he had anything to fear, it allowed him instead to realize that he really had nothing keeping him here.

Allowing his pace to slow, he drifted slowly around the exterior of the vehicle. He ran his fingers over the old, chipped chrome, plucked at the tired un-upgraded leather thinking all the while of what he should do.

He allowed himself to stop. With heavy feet, he felt nearly deleted in front of the car. HE faced it with the admittance of its failure. Letting his fingers fall from the surface, he turned just as slowly to face the window that opened his hard-disk's wall to the city that turned to him for safety.

He found himself hit with a blow that forced him to stagger back. The city faced him angrily. The evening power-down left the red glow of the cyber-sea to glare at him. Buildings approached him; glaring at him through their dark silhouette. Everything seemed to rise and fall above with each breath he took. His internal CPU thudded heavier and heavier against his chest. He felt off balanced, suddenly weak as he stared wide eyed at the city throbbing in front of him.

It was as if it were possessed.

"Or maybe it's me." He thought, panting.

The heavy shadows revealed to him its dire need for his protection, for his strength, his courage, wit and undying optimism.

"…am I stong enough?" muttering.

He saw the fears of others travel out of the buildings almost as if they were radio waves. It penetrated the walls of his very own sacred space and threatened to tear it apart, binary file by binary file. He felt vulnerable as his breathing quickened and knees began to feel the pressure, the heat, of the prayers uttered.

The guardian threw out his hands to fly back in attempt to brace his fall against the red- medium behind him. His head sunk into his hands as he fell to the floor.

There was too much hurt in this city for one sprite to act like the User for everyone. This is what he realized.

"Is it too much?" He rubbed his eyes against his palms feeling the remaining scars he had gathered over the cycles.

"Can I really do it all alone?"

Pressing his hands tightly to his ears was the only thing he could try and do to stop the noise. Glitch couldn't help him now. What was he supposed to do, cast a giant dome over himself? Travel to another system via portal? Force him self to become deaf? There was nothing, the voices would keep coming straight at him. Impenetrable steel and stabbing like a knife.

"Why am I hearing this now?" He wondered aloud, nearly in pain from the city's phantom.

He sunk his fingers into the thick matting of his now short hair. Palms against his ears, he threw his head back and allowed himself to scream.

It was the roar of a wounded animal, or man, if someone truly knew the source of the sound. His throat shook. His lungs sputtered wearily, gasping for breath as he heaved the all of the pain from his body.

"Try to drown it out," he thought to himself. "You're… not a gua..rdia..n. You're the same as .y…ou were… before…"

His voice travelled like heavy rain in the tiny room. It flooded instantly with resonance. With his eyes shut, he imagined the window shattering and his own voice battling that of the city. His own voice would save him, in the end. His own determination. His own fight, and drive for a happier personal existence.

Soon, he began to believe that there actually was no sound.

That instead, his mouth was open and moving, becoming dry without sound. He was no longer strong, or brave or resistant. Instead, because of the wonderful disquiet, he was alone.

His hands fell first, leading the timber of the rest of his torso.

Everything then was still and quiet. And Bob knew that if he had awoken to see it, that everything would be beautiful and soft.

Even the crumpled heap of his body on the floor.


	2. Chapter 2

AndrAia allowed herself to take some time to herself now a-days.

She understood very well that because of the deception and return of the system's virus, that it had been very stressful and no one will really ever be the same.

She knew that people needed to be alone now. That peace was the medicine to rebuild the city's once bustling empire. The quiet allowed others to rest, but most worked through it. She herself felt like a slave most of the time, nothing compared to the others, though.

She soared silibantly on her zip board over what was left of her home, Mainframe.

Serveying the difference between now and Megabyte's last take over, but majority of the weaker sectors were easily put offline. Once powerful neon circuits now flickered weakly on the crumbling buildings. Business was down everywhere, no one entered the streets. Patrols frequented damaged areas and those that suffered were sent to a refuge at the centre of the city.

She travelled alongside the old binary rail, which was no longer running. AndrAIa was headed to the isle of Lost Angles where Hexadecimal was once found.

The island seemed so vacant without the virus and her jeering laughter. Her shrieks sometimes awoke AndrAIa from a deep offline sometimes.

AndrAia knew that's where she would find him.

Matrix had frequented the area ever since the null of his father was officially deleted by Megabyte's return. The mechanical body that Dr. Matrix was given became possessed by the virus and shut down.

It went completely offline. There was no way to recover his father this time.

Matrix remained slightly optimistic though, it seemed. "Maybe being here reminded him that his father hadn't truly been deleted. That he was still… somewhere…" She thought, coasting closer to the ground.

The board steadily sank to the surface of the system, allowing her the ability to plant herself steadily upon it. She presented herself with force even in the worst situations. She was a firm believer in showing no physical weakness.

"Once a game sprite, always a game sprite." Shaking her head, she placed her hand over the trident that rested dutifully on her hip and sashayed her way over the degrading bridge that separated the isle. She shuttered softly at the memory of this isle and how it become a tool for Mainframe's deletion.

AndrAIa reminded herself once more, as she pictured Hexadecimal's face, that it was actually over. "Not to worry," She smiled softly, speaking in a whisper.

Matrix's shadow stood dark and lumbering in the system's light. He seemed to always be shrouded in the darkness of a powered-down system. It was almost Mainframe's time to power down and soon their boards would no longer be powerful enough to fly them home.

When the city reached this part of its cycle, she found it to be her favorite time. Everything glowing as if lit by an ember. The city was like a fragment file, a ghost who remained alive. Looking over her shoulder now, AndrAIa would have to regard her surrounds as if it were a dying sprite. Coughing and sputtering. It flickered in the same way from time to time.

"Hi," He said peering at her. His face remained dark. He seemed to sense her presence every time.

His voice smouldered. She had to remind herself to hold her composure. "Still weak for him, I see?" She thought to herself, feeling silly.

"How are ya' doin' Sparky?" She asked, trying to sound light.

Matrix shrugged turning to face her. His footsteps rumbled softly in the paved circuit board as he approached her.

"You should really log in some offline time." She scolded him lightly as he placed his large hands on her shoulders. "You've been working around the clock."

"AndrAIa," She looked at him hardheartedly through her green lashes.

"Quiet, boy. Come home tonight. You've been patrolling for seconds… training for nearly a cycle. You would probably enjoy some offline time, and even being updated with information from your sister. Bob, even."

She pressed close to him, and saddling her fingers through the loops in his belt. She twisted herself away quickly, pulling slightly on Matrix's lower half. "Come now." She finalized, turning away back the way she had come.

She saw Matrix close his eyes and sigh. His body willingly admitted that she was right, and followed in her stride, eventually pulling up to her side.

Gingerly, he swept his fingers lightly across her neon hair.

She pretended not to notice, but smiled at him through her eyes.

There was the sound of the bridge creaking and softly crumbling into the circuit sea beneath them.

"You've got to stop sitting out here,"

"Pretty soon, that break is going to catch up with you and soon there will be no connection to you or Lost Angles at all." A warning she hoped wouldn't come true.

Matrix looked at her."Let's go home."

He grabbed he zip board from out of her hands and allowed himself to step heavily onto it. He swept one arm under her shoulders and the other under her knees, pulling her closer to his body for warmth against the wind in flight. AndrAia laid one arm around his neck and pressed the top of her head into his neck.

Matrix and AndrAia had once relocated to a smaller sector of Mainframe, but then decided to retain their permanent residence at the Principal Office. That's where they would both serve the most good.

Matrix directed the zip board to the roof of the Principal Office.

AndrAia looked at Mainframe, feeling happy and at home with Matrix beside her.

The buildings remained in a perpetual silhouette against the red sky as she turned to look at her partner, his gold eye glistening in the light.

As they began to take their retreat inside, a sound furrowed the silence. It allowed AndrAIa to feel fearful, as if the powering down city had secrets in the night.

AndrAIa squinted into the bright neon of the night… checking her back, just in case.


	3. Chapter 3

Everything is black.

I am unable to tell what is the ground or if here gravity even exists. Nothing seems to be in front of me.

The board that I stand on is keeping me from finding out what is really there. If there is anything at all to find, that is. I feel a sinking feeling, as if I could be falling at any moment.

I float forward slowly, noticing that there is no breeze, that the atmosphere is stale and still. It's perfectly suited to this place.

If I could see, who would I see coming towards me? That is the question I am supposed to answer here. I feel my mind fumbling in the dark, mimicking my body. I strain every part of me to try and answer this question. What do I see? What do I see…? I keep thinking, but nothing seems to present itself to me. But then, I get the strangest feeling in the pit of mu stomach. Finally…

I see…

I see…

Silver.

It's the reflection of water. It's like looking at the circuit sea in a mirror. It waves and seems to dance in front of me. Almost hypnotic. Almost like its real.

I reach out to see if I can touch this lingering image. I see my fingers push through the heavy dark to press on the apparently warm swimming surface. One finger presses against it, and I realize it's actually hard.

From this action light begins to throw itself from the tip of my fingers. I place my whole palm on the flat surface and allow the light to process upwards. It feels alive. I watch it grow up the mirrored sea and it begins to take over my wrist. Raising my head, I notice the outline beginning to form. It's a light edging that's forming the beginnings of a muscular neck, strong jaw, smiling lips and protected eyes. Little zero's and one's float lightly from my skin and into this newly outlined face. I seem to be filling the rest in.

The black doesn't seem so heavy anymore. I feel some comfort at the idea of Ray materializing in front of me. My skin and scales glisten softly in the light from his armor, what I thought was an image of the sea. He raises his arms and places his burnt umber coloured hands onto my shoulders. I raise my head and allow myself to peer into the lenses that stare at me.

His lips raise into a half smile. It's almost a welcoming gesture as I allow him to pull me closer to his chest. I am being pressed against him, hard. I can feel the coolness of his body and it reminds me once again that this isn't real. I wonder: 'Why not Matrix? Why isn't he appearing in front of me?' but my thoughts are snuffed out as my mouth is next pressed into Ray's body. His arms circle my head and I seem to be raised from my hover board. I can feel pressure. It begins in my head and travels down my neck into my body. I can even feel the code in my hair begin to soften, become weak under the pressure.

I cannot see anything past his blinding armor: my face is pressed right into it. I can feel hands moving on my lower legs but it can't be him. My face is buried in his arms. Can it? Is it him? I begin to panic.

Next thing: I begin to feel released from his grasp. I open my eyes again only to still be blinded by the neon heat of the sea. There is nothing on my face. I've raised my hands to check. But, why am I blind? Why is this all I can see? There are still hands on my feet. They're on my knees. My thighs next, my hips, my stomach… I can feel them prying open my lips and pressing against my teeth. Almost as if they are checking if I am still here. I feel the cool warmth of a fingertip on my blind eyes. The circuit sea gives way to blue. A still blue like the calm ocean. It reminds me of my home, my birthplace, the game I had been retrieved from. I feel vulnerable, unguarded and so I start thinking of Matrix to try and calm myself. I know he wouldn't allow me to ever be in any kind of immediate danger. This reassures me slightly.

Next: I can feel lips press heavily to mine and begin to fumble lightly, almost romantically.

I feel like a thief because of these foreign lips. I am betraying my long time lover, here in this… dream? Can I even call it that? I can feel my body begin to kiss these strange cool lips back. But, I am unable to control it. My eyes are closed still and I can feel the world beginning to topple over around me. I imagine my eyes opening, being pried open this time by my own fingers.

When I am finally able to peer out once again, all I can see is the brightness of blue and silver glistening out of the darkness, close to my face. The blue and silver being are reflected like the moon in a pond.

Bob.

It's calm.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

She was starting to wake up. The clock counted down the nano's until she was once again rejoined into the real system. Phong's eyes passed between AndrAIa and the clock, waiting patiently.

Her eyes opened to the bright lights of the examination room and she allowed them to slide from wall to wall around her. Phong was there, his head peering over hers like it had been when she was sedated. His eyes seemed happy, eyebrows raised, almost expectant. It was still and quiet. She could hear the clock on the wall.

"Sooo, my child…" he purred, tapping his long needle-like fingers against the vid-board he held. "What did you see?"

AndrAIa raised her body to be balanced on her elbow. She rubbed her eyes with her fingers, the palm of her hands. The feeling of her own skin on her face was absurd.

"I feel… numb…" She choked. Her strength wasn't fully regained yet, so she allowed herself to lay back down.

"Well, my dear child, you have been offlined for quite some time. The test took longer than usual. We have never had to do these kinds of tests on Game Sprites before. It can take some getting used to."

"I don't think I could get used to being hit by bricks, Phong. This is what it must feel like." She sighed restlessly and looked at the Command.

His fingers tapped heavily onto the vid-board he carried, notating what she had finished saying.

He pressed: "What did you see, my child!"

"Fellow sprites."

"Who? What was it like?"

"I don't know, who… it's almost like I couldn't recognize them." She lied through her teeth. "I felt blind the whole time."

Phong nodded and kept punching this information into his key-pad. "Interesting…" He slid himself off across the room to the large computer that was used for sprite analysis.

"I wish we could find the remaining traces of the virus. You were infected during Megabyte's take-over, weren't you, AndrAIa?" He wheeled his head around to look at her again. She stared at his face, eyebrows still raised and waiting. AndrAia picked up her body and swung her legs over the edge of the examination table so that she was able to sit up.

"Yah, I remember it." She began to explain, and Phong slid sibilantly over. "He had taken over the Principal Office and many binomes were already lost. This is when we were all in retreat, remember?" Phong nodded, remembering from her words.

"Do I really need to replay the story for you?" She asked, having done so many times already. Phong lifted his spidery fingers and waved them in gesture for her to continue.

Sighing, she said: "Well, it was during one of the attempted take-overs. Matrix was close to nullifying Megabyte for the millionth time, and we had pushed Megabyte out of the principal office and restrained the wires that seemed to be infecting everyone. Bob and Dot were in charge of that. They had created some kind of restraining device…. Anyways, once again we felt the situation becoming too dangerous to continue and the restraints were unable to hold the flailing arms. Bob was gone, carrying a damaged Dot, and Matrix and I were running down the North corridor. One of the arms broke loose, Phong. Megabytes viral wires lunged at Matrix and I as we were running but instead of hitting us, it just shattered my fin." She held up her right arm to examine it. The fin that she had used as a shield during so many battles was no longer whole and iridescent. It was halved, weak and grey. She remembered that it had shattered like glass when it was hit. The pain had shot up her whole arm. The reasons for these tests were to find out why she could not replenish it. They were done to find out whether or not she was minutely infected or a threat to her self. Megabyte's virus possessed the mind and body, after all. Considering how close she was to the Principal Office and Mainframe's protection, they both had agreed that this risk was something she was not to take.

The tests were to insure that she did not SEE Megabyte. That she did not feel him when mildly offlined. If she had seen or felt him, it meant that his virus had transferred itself into her, and that she was infact: infected, possessed. But, instead, she saw Ray and Bob. If she told Phong this, everything would be fine. The tests would stop. But, she knew that not everything was alright.

She picked at her shattered skin with her left forefinger and thumb, thinking. Phong had slid away again to review the data pulled from her sedation.

Nanos later, AndrAIa was freed from Phong's worrisome stare. She pushed passed the sounds of his thinking and strolled happily straight out of the doors of the Office. Her pace slowed to one less confident when she neared the quiet that was Floating Point Park. AndrAIa allowed herself to admit minor defeat over the tests that had revealed to her something greatly harmful.

Matrix was already at home in their quarters. He would be deeply offlined by now. AndrAIa always slipped away in the dark after his breath and given in to the rise and fall of a deep sleep to visit Phong and his examination room. Before, he just did general internal checks on her CPU and memory. He checked her reflexes, her RAM and the code that made up her body. Now he was checking her storage devices. Instead of checking the stability of her internal system, he ventured into checking the contents. This is what worried her.

She felt confused and sat herself down on a low hovering mass. Her confusion stemmed from somewhere deep inside. "What do I have to hide? Why am I seeing these strange faces? Why don't I believe in myself anymore..?''

Pulling her knees up to her chest, she weighed the severity of the situation. She tried to push the darker thoughts out of her brain. Because Matrix had been gone for so long, he was unaware of her situation. The way she woke up hearing Hex's screams… The way in which she woke to see darkened skin on her hands and face, which seemed to fade a few nano's after her waking. She felt more powerful when her skin was darkened like that. AndrAIa remembered standing in front of their compartment's mirror, clenching and unclenching her navy-blue fists seeing a dark steam rise from her flattened palms.

Who could she talk to about this? If she mentioned it to Matrix, her relationship would fall to pieces, especially because of her imagined infidelity. Maybe not permanently, she considered, but a certain element of the relationship would be lost.

Bob should not be involved, even though he might be the closest to understanding. Yet, AndrAIa convinced herself that this had nothing to do with him.

And then there was Dot…

"Poor Dot," She exhaled heavily into her knees, feeling the breath warm her cool armour. "If I told you about my silly dream, if I could even call it that, you'd never understand…"

The second Commander of the Principal Office had enough to deal with already since Megabyte's fall. Dot allowed herself to become recluse and stored inside herself, feeling bad about her betrayal to Bob. It had been so many cycles that they had been a part of each other, only to be torn apart because of her need for the safety of home. She just couldn't allow herself to accept the change in Bob, when he had merged with Glitch. She didn't understand that he had done the only thing he could to survive, to keep his power as Guardian.

But now, Dot Matrix kept herself alone. She barely spoke to anyone. Her only dream was to reignite the system and the sanctity that the city had once provided to sprites. Sprites like Matrix, Little Enzo, and even AndrAIa: who was one not even from this system.

AndrAIa allowed herself to stay at the park for awhile, calming her circuits and considering the situation. She lay herself back to stare at the system's barrier above her. Feeling small, she closed her eyes to the throbbing neon blue.

She remained completely unaware of the silent danger that lurked inside of her. Inside those faces her mind had projected.

Sweetly unaware.


	4. Chapter 4

Footsteps lay heavy sound in the powered-out, empty alley.

The streets of Mainframe refused to be populated in times like these; binomes found themselves too weak and fearful of any lurking shadow or sprite.

She stepped confidently in this darkness though, carrying no fear, for she knew that nothing could harm her. She was the one who populated the fear in this system. She created the silent unrest of Mainframe's once happy inhabitants.

Light sounds trailed out of a broken door that sat crooked on its powered-out hinges. It was located at the end of the alley with old recycling bins littering the entrance as if to draw attention away from it. She laid her gloved hand against the splintering circuit and pushed it open. With a whine, the once silent music rushed itself in a wave out into the alley, flooding it with warm light and sound. Stepping in, she let the door close behind her, being ignored by the fellow patrons inside.

This place was once known as Al's Diner. She remembered, the sound of her steps introduced her presence into the room. Few turned their eyelids up towards her approach, but vaguely acknowledged it.

Now, it was known informally as the Pirate's Bay and she had been coming here ever since Al and his waiter were killed.

Drunk and cursing binomes and sprites lingered with slurred conversations around the broken circuit tables. She smirked, lifting her hand to move her navy blue bangs out of her eyes, she felt confident in the power that she wielded now. This feeling allowed her to be in places like this comfortably, everyone still feared the man that she now resembled.

She slid into a booth at the back that had been roughly assembled out of a destroyed hover-car. Picking lightly at the seats with her long, polished nails she sat listening as an old gypsy sprite tinkered heavily onto the stage. She noticed that the performer's footsteps were laced with the sound of bells, and her lavender coloured feet barely made a sound as they crossed the stage. During the quick silence of the place, she heard the name of her predecessor being whispered.

She smiled and focused her attention on the performance.

The gypsy placed a vidwindow on her lap, and accessed an old key-gen program. A hologram appeared above the window, flickering weakly. It was obviously un-upgraded. 'Possibly even infected,' the stranger observed. The gypsy slowly placed her fingers over the hollow ivory keys and began to fabricate notes that became a powerful sound behind her ankle's bells.

The gypsy began to sing softly into the dark of the cavern, slowly attracting the attention of all those in attendance. Her eyes opened, a bright violet, and focused heavily to the back of the room. The visitor knew who those eyes sought.

This was a place for those unwanted, or those sought out for their dangerous acts. This part of Mainframe was heavily influenced by upgrade poverty, binome prostitution and viral use. This is exactly where she belonged; where they both belonged. It's where the gypsy came to sing, and her song always brought her who she was looking for.

The song slowly died away, the last syllables evaporating into the air.

"_Light me up a cigarette and put it in my mouth…  
You're the only one that wants me around..  
And I can think of a thousand reasons why  
I don't believe in you, I don't believe in yo…u and ..I"_

The violet woman concluded her presence on the stage, minimized her vid-window and walked heavily to the back of the room where the stranger was waiting.

"It's been a long time, Missy." She had a light smile on her lips, an accent heavily lining her words.

The stranger acknowledged her friend and waved her dark hands in gesture for her to sit down. The gypsy did so elegantly, almost with a wave of her hips. She was tall and slender, just as her acquaintance. She had radiant lavender skin, and flickering violet eyes. Today, the stranger took note of, she was dressed in the style of a game sprite: long transparent scarves draped over her shoulders and torso, wrapping tightly around her waist. The arrangement fell into a soft length that brushed the top of the sprite's feet. She wore a gold braid across her forehead with a small green jewel in the centre of her forehead. This is how the stranger remembered her from the games. She had also escaped the User as a young Sprite and had been game hopping, or web surfing ever since. She reenacted her character for money, enticing drunk male sprites into taking her home. Where she took control.

"Although," she stranger smiled with her eyes down, "She isn't as weak as she seems, now is she. Remember that." A personal warning.

"High Violett," She looked up at her guest. "It's been a long time." The gypsy leaned forward across the table, bringing her face close to the speaker.

"Too long, dear. I think the last time we had run into each other you were still game-hopping, yourself, and with that pesky friend of yours too." She laughed lightly. "Not to say that I don't like him… because I'd like everyone that you do, darling." Her lips puckered into a teasing smile.

"Well, I don't know if I can fully access the information you're talking about,'' The outsider said, still leaning back in her seat. Her hands were crossed in her lap, fingers tapping. "Things have changed and you probably remember that I am not the one who sought you out. Your name was left to me. Don't forget that you're still for hire." Her words were firm, cross almost.

Violett leaned back into her seat, lips pursed out of annoyance this time having taken offence to the harsh tone. She mumbled: "I'd bet you don't talk to my sister this way."

"Leave Mousee out of this," the stranger leaned a sharp elbow onto the crumbling table, her face still hidden in the shadows. "She's not of my, or your concern now. You two were separated as children and for good reason. There is no point in having two hackers to a family, especially when you're as good as you." Her eyes glistened ruby. They flickered in the shallow light so threateningly that Violett was taken aback. She had never encountered such evil from someone she knew.

She wondered to herself, resting her pout in the strength of her thumb and forefinger: "Are you who I knew you to be?"

She continued aloud: "Alright, alright… She's forgotten. It's not like I talk to her anyway. She allowed the fingers that supported her face to become entangled in her ebony hair. It flickered the same way as her sisters did; full of power.

"That's better." The stranger's silhouette moved more relaxed this time, leaning back into the seat. "Now, shall we get down to business?"

Violett nodded. The stranger raised two of her fingers to signal drinks towards the waiter.

"We can't have a business meeting without a little social lubricant now can we, Violett." Her eyes flickered red in the darkness, making the violet visitor shift in her un-protective clothing.

"This had better not take long, I need to go home and change."

"It won't. I can reassure you of that." Red reassurance.


	5. Chapter 5

Dot sat, running her finger in circles over the rim of her glass.

She kept her head down, arms crossed on the splintering circuit table in front of her. She was alone in the Pirate's Bay.

She heard the door open behind her, and footsteps crossing the floor but she did not look up to see who was entering or exiting, or who could be around her. She just kept staring into the energy-drink she had purchased with her few remaining credits. Funds were hard to procure in a system so ravaged, and yet she chose to spend her time here, wasting the credits and her time.

Sadly enough, she had purchased a down-grade drink, hoping that it would act as an offline-r and help her get some sleep tonight. She hadn't been doing much of that since Megabyte revealed himself to her. She remembered how it felt to have him ripped out of that comforting artificial body… the thought of it made her want to throw up. She felt her internal programming squirm at the memory. She closed her eyes and allowed her dark glasses to slip down her nose: she bowed her head down into her drink, taking a sip.

A performer dressed as a gypsy moved in front of her on stage. She sang a song of deceit and love turned fowl. Something that had come from the User, or the web… there was no such thing as 'cigarettes' here.

Dot thought to herself: "She must be very well webbed, if she knows a song like that." She allowed her eyes to close, feeling small and pathetic in the face of someone who appears more well educated. She hoped that she would not be noticed.

Sipping her drink, she watched as the gypsy exited into the shadows of a nearby table. She was then replaced by a sad looking binome, dressed in rags of black. The little binome clutched the microphone close to her speaker and looked up to the ceiling as she sang heavy words of a love also lost. Dot felt even more pathetic.

"I just have to come to the most emotionally offlining place this system has to offer!" She felt frustrated and put her glass down loudly. Nearby patrons turned their lowered eyes in her direction. This was not the kind of place you drew attention to yourself.

She placed her jade palms on the edge of the table and pushed her seat out from under it. Standing tall in the dank bar, she pulled her shoulders back and walked out on the singer and her lo-fi song. Her heels clicked slowly down the alley that headed to her home, and Dot shoved her hands into the pockets of the jacket she wore. Tonight, her usual leather cat-suit and microphone were hung up at her desk in the Principal Office. She couldn't be recognized as the system's Command in a place so viral. Instead, she picked out her usual upgrade attire for the trip. Laying lightly on her skin was a dress of black, and a beige trench coat. She had seen this attire in one of the games she and Bob had entered long ago. It was a detective story with a couple searching out the game's resolve. She mimicked the outfit almost in attempt to bring back the memory itself. She had been so happy with the Guardian… then. Her head hung down, remains of their laughter and conversation at the time circling in her head. She shook it off of her; the memory. The long black hair that she had tied up on her head came down from its bun when she wagged her head.

Dot turned right out of the alley onto one of the main streets of her system. She would use a zip-board to get herself home, but the city had been long since powered down for the evening. She was faced with walking.

Unfortunately, the city's quiet caused an uproar in her mind. Raising a hand to her brow, she pinched her eyes shut and tried to rub the drink from her eyes. It was making her want to sleep… she was tripping both on the sidewalk and her own thoughts.

"Snap out of it," She whispered to herself, leaning against the brick wall nearest her. She allowed her eyes to remain shut and pulled her darkened glasses from her face. She felt vulnerable revealing herself to the city this way. Thoughts circled around the circumstance of her actions if she were to be found out. Dot pressed both of her shoulders against the wall and leaned her head up to look at the marbled sky. The powering down red light of the sky transformed itself into a black and purple marble at night.

Phong had once told her a story of the web having such power to great things like this. She was forced to remember when Enzo was younger, and her father still alive, that he had called them "System Aurora". Her father had given Enzo the idea for the name, claiming the information would be revealed to him, as well, through the web.

"One day…" Her father's voice trailed off in her head. She felt solace from his voice, and the memory of him, happy to be freed from the plague of her Guardian friend. Sighing, she blinked at the colours swirling above her.

"I should go." She smiled to the light above her, imagining her father's face. "I'm deeply tired and should be getting back to other things tonight… Right?" His bespectacled face smiled back at her through her memory's hologram. Dot felt reassured that if he were still alive, he would understand.

Her footsteps picked up the steady pace that they had originally held, and her confidence slowly regained. She could feel the drink that she had ingested course through her internal programming, willing her to sleep, but also pushing her to keep on.

"I think I feel the tiniest bit better." Mumbling to herself, the Principal Office rose in her sights over the city. With each footstep she could feel the throb of the Core. It was nearing her, beckoning her… calling sweetly with the reassurance of her Palm and the stabilizing system.

Dot imagined Phong and Matrix sleeping inside. She imagined the refugee camp and all of the binomes and lost sprites finding things to still smile about. Mousee and Ray Tracer laughing together in the evening, they usually hovered somewhere with his web-surf board. Lastly, she imagined Bob. She pictured him sleeping soundly in his small eight-ball apartment. She saw him turn over, deeply offlined, dressed now in short hair and his usual Guardian attire (the appearance she knew so well). In her mind, she saw the familiar glint of a web scar in the light of the night.

She came to the entrance of the Principal Office and turned on her heel in the direction of those apartments.

"I should see him one of these days." Smiling slightly, she pulled the elastic band from her long hair. She had let it grow since… the 'incident'.

It was almost as if time had slowed, she could feel her hair falling slowly down her neck, onto her shoulders when she saw two figures walking quickly through the night. One, she recognized as the gypsy from the Bay. She had changed now into skin tight black clothes and a jacket with the collar pulled up high. But, who was she with? Dot squinted against the light of the Principal Office's street lamps to try and see better. She could not make out the second person. Dark as well, but skin this time. Long flowing hair. The two passed close by the Office and under one of the lamps.

Dot's eyes widened as the stranger's dark hair caught the light. Neon.


	6. NOTE

Hello all,

This is just a notice to inform you that I have been unable to write for some time (because of school) and also my computer that contained everything is now gone!

I will try my hardest to keep up with this series because I did have a very good idea as to where I wanted it to go!

Thx.


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